ColumnIn our modern, technology filled world, we’re busy, and so we cut corners, but food shouldn’t be one of them.

Checking your iPhone during dinner is rude (well, unless you’re food porning it up… and even then, there are limits). But what’s worse? Making your iPhone your dinner partner.

That’s right food lovers, you can now buy a bowl for ramen that magically connects your iPhone so that you can surf and text and check your updates while you’re slurping down a bowl of hot noodle broth. Great! Why enjoy your meal when you could be reading your email?

In the midst of articles about farmers markets, CSAs and urban gardens, it’s discoveries like this that give me cause for concern, particularly about our future as a society. Not because hip food cities may soon be filled with ramen/iPhone bars (isn’t there an app that turns your phone into a set of chopsticks??), but because it’s an indicator of a larger cultural dilemma.

We live in a fast-paced world, where work is longer and meals are shorter. We trade the conference room for the dinner table, and soon eating is just another task in the day; something to be checked off of a to-do list.

We’re busy and so we cut corners, but food shouldn’t be one of them. Seeking out devices to replace the fact that we aren’t sitting around a table with family or friends is not only depressing, it’s a sign of the times: we live in a world where eating is an afterthought–something that we know we must do, just like we must wash the dishes and we must go to work.

But if we take the pleasure and ceremony out of eating, what are we left with? A world where good food isn’t honored and fast food is the norm. There’s a causal relationship between our high octane modern world and our path towards a public health epidemic: we don’t take time to eat, much less honor the process, gather with friends, celebrate the food in front of us and the company around us. Put an emphasis back on living life, and maybe food politics falls in place right behind.

We complain that dinner takes time and energy to prepare; but aren’t we lucky enough to be taking a moment to work with our hands and produce something that sustains us? Somewhere our relationship to food went askew – instead of flavor and sustenance we chose efficiency and in turn have created a system where taste is in fact the last criteria that is used in most food that is grown. Genetically modified tomatoes that grow into squares so that they pack better? Why not?

Food is one of the few moments in the day where we can disconnect. Remove ourselves from our digital lives and appreciate something physical and tangible. An all-senses affair. If we want to change the world of food, maybe we need to start thinking about our own interactions with it first. Are we present? Are making something or merely hitting the “warm up” button? Do we make time for food or is it an afterthought?

A good friend emailed me in reference to last week’s column where I said that cooking is our thirty minutes a day to disconnect from everything else and merely commit to the creation of a single thing:

“My face fell at the idea of spending a mere 30 minutes cooking each day. Try as I might I spend far more than 30 minutes preparing food each day. I’d better start working towards more efficiency in the kitchen. All those hours add up in a hurry. And what did you do with your life, Mrs. Bryan?”

I responded simply by saying  “If all you did in your life, Mrs. Bryan, was spend time in the kitchen making amazing things and being aware of your surroundings, I would say that that is a life well lived.”

Good food doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be conscious. If not, we risk a world in which real food disappears, and that is a world that is certainly not conducive to living well.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Photo Credit: MisoSoupDesign

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ColumnCan I have a side of fries with that run?

“Can we get burgers and beer?”

These are words that rarely come out of my mouth. Burgers and beer are a far stretch from kale smoothies and quinoa after all.

But burgers – real burgers – are good. Especially when you’ve worked for them. So after a half-marathon this weekend, my friend Megan and I deemed IPAs and burgers on the outdoor patio at the local brewery a must.

I didn’t opt for the lamb, artichoke and chevre version (there was one), or even the pub specialty, I went for the simplest burger on the menu: beef, lettuce, onions and tomato. No cheese. Just a straight up hamburger. No sea salt, or artisan blue cheese or fried egg or even cured bacon. Just a burger. Remember those?

“This is the best thing I have ever eaten,” I said matter of factly.

Now before everyone freaks out about me eating a burger (Gasp! But there’s gluten!) and fries (Gasp! They’re not even made from sweet potatoes!), let me explain, and keep in mind that when all is said and done, I did come home to some vegan chocolate mousse. Was a regular burger really the best thing I had ever eaten? Certainly not. Are burgers even my favorite food? Far from it. But in that moment it was, because post-half marathon, much like post any kind of physical activity, food, even water, tastes better.

In these situations, we appreciate what we’re eating because our body needs it. Not because something caught our eye on the menu, but because we are giving our body sustenance. How often do we feel this way on a regular day basis? Rarely, and it’s not because we’re not having daily hardcore workouts, it’s simply because we are not eating in balance with what our body needs, and in turn, we lose an appreciation for what’s on the plate in front of us.

We live in a world of convenience, and our eating habits have followed suite. We’re hungry, or we know that we should eat, so we grab the nearest thing we can find, or we stop in at a restaurant and order what sounds good. In half an hour or less we’ve eaten and continue on with our day. Thirty minutes after that and we can’t even remember what we just ate. Not because the meal itself wasn’t memorable, but because we were too busy to pay attention. Not really needing everything we were consuming, we didn’t take the time to appreciate it. Soon we’re complicating dishes, because we’re bored with the original version, unsatisfied with its simplicity.

But good food, both in terms of taste and in terms of health, is often simple food. Ask anyone that trains on a consistent basis, and their diets are rarely complicated affairs. They’re made up of all the things we know we should be eating: whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, a kale smoothie here and there. If you eat regular, well portioned meals, you’ll feel the same way: satisfied with less.

Time, stress and a lack of a quality food tradition keep us from doing so. We eat dinner on the go, we don’t take time to sit down with friends and break bread, and we focus more on the individual characteristics of food that we think we need – more protein! more antioxidants! – than taking a holistic approach and eating food for food’s sake.

If we take time to think about what we’re consuming – where it came from, what it is, who prepared it – an ordinary dish quickly turns extraordinary. But when we stop thinking about what we eat, we’re rarely satisfied with simplicity. Instead we need fancy combinations, infusions and condiments that distract us from what we’re really eating.

A simple salad? Not good enough. Where’s the ranch dressing?

Vegetable stir fry? Doesn’t anyone have any teriyaki sauce to add to this?

Basic omelette? Can’t that have a little ham and goat cheese in it? And where are my scallions?

We can’t even assess what is good food and what isn’t because our bodies don’t really even need all that we’re giving them. Overdosing is convenient. We don’t think about what we’re consuming because we don’t have to.

“Seriously is this not the best hamburger you have ever eaten?”

“Yes. It’s why we run Brones.”

Megan was right. Eating happens to be one of the reasons that I and several of my friends run, in fact it’s a regular topic of discussion. Not because it means that we can eat anything (although that is a nice feeling), but because we have a better appreciation for food that we don’t get when we eat just because we have to.

There’s nothing better than a meal after you’ve worked your body. That’s natural, it’s what humans have done for centuries. But most of us don’t do jobs anymore that require physical labor. Instead we live in urban areas, frazzled and neurotic, and after three hours of staring at a computer screen and feeling low on energy, we reward ourselves with a big lunch, probably consuming much more than our body actually needs.

What’s the solution? Reminding ourselves of what good food really is and how much of it we actually need.

Much like eating outdoors helps us to appreciate the simplicity of food so does physical exertion. Some of the best meals I have ever had were after long hikes or runs, with friends around a table sharing the mutual feeling of accomplishment along with a much needed refuel.

We don’t have to commit to intense workouts before each meal, but we can eat in better balance with what our bodies need. Give our body the sustenance that it requires, not because the food is convenient, but because we’re conscious about what we’re taking in.

And plan more workouts that include a good celebratory meal with friends afterwards. Be sure to get the IPA.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

The post Foodie Underground: The Beauty of a Post Workout Meal appeared first on EcoSalon.

10 diets that should make you want to run (for your life).

It’s okay to be a little freaked out by the prospect of stuffing your pale, corduroy-shielded backside into a bathing suit in just a few short weeks. It’s also okay to cut back on the pasta and do a few extra squats or lunges at the gym in preparation for the yearly “unveiling.” It’s even okay to learn a few new toning moves from women’s magazine articles with titles like, “6 Weeks to Your Best Bikini Body Ever!”

What’s not okay, however, is undertaking a faddish, questionable, and gimmicky diet in order to drop pounds as quickly as possible. If you want to lose weight, eat veggies and lean protein, avoiding processed foods, carbs, and alcohol. Skip these shams, along with any “doctor” who tells you that you can lose weight by eating cookies all day. (Hint: Not true.)

Any [Single-Ingredient] Diet

These have been around for decades, employed by high-school girls desperate to look skinny for prom. The cabbage soup diet. The grapefruit diet. The anchovy diet. Most of these schemes promise unlimited amounts of the magic ingredient (“You can have all the cabbage soup you want!”), as if consuming 900 percent of your daily allowance of beta-carotene makes up for not consuming any other vitamins or nutrients.

The Feeding-Tube Diet

For the busy woman who simply has no time to think about eating, a feeding-tube diet (technically called the K-E Diet, short for ketogenic enteral nutrition) may be the perfect solution. Pioneered in Europe, this ten-day regimen involves inserting a nasogastric tube to deliver liquefied nutrition, and promises that patients can lose up to ten percent of their body weight in only ten days. This diet is popular with self-obsessed brides-to-be and women who contemplate ingesting tapeworms.

Die Fat or Get Tough

Are you fat? If so, it’s your fault. As the book’s website says, “Get ready for a 2,000-volt cattle prod to your consciousness.” You think like a fat person, therefore, you’re probably going to die. Sorry. You’re not fat because of portion sizes, cortisol, or your thyroid – you’re fat because you’re weak and pathetic. Doesn’t that make you feel better? Get tough like Steve Siebold, the writer, so you can be an awesome winner like he is. (Note: The website doesn’t specify exactly what a fat person “thinks like,” but it’s safe to say that his diet plan probably involves yelling at your thighs until they disintegrate in submission.)

The Paleo Diet

Also called the “Caveman Diet,” because it’s modeled on how cavemen ate. (Supposedly.) No wheat, no carbs, no sugar, no alcohol, no beans, no corn, no dairy. Sounds reasonable, right? Except that you replace bread and milk with meat. Lots and lots of meat. Bacon, sausage, beef, ham, meat three times a day. Meat as snacks. Meat for dessert. Meat. Meat. Meat. Avoid this diet for the sake of your cholesterol and the environment.

The Cookie Diet

What’s not to love about a diet that allows you to eat cookies? The fact that these aren’t so much “cookies” as they are “low-cal bran clumps,” for one. Also the fact that this diet only allows you to consume about 1000 calories a day, which is far too few for any healthy adult.

The Apple Cider Vinegar Diet

Can drinking pure apple cider vinegar with every meal help increase your metabolism, curb your appetite, and decrease bloating? Well, the jury’s still out on those claims, but apple cider vinegar definitely reduces your appetite. Drink a shot of it before meals and you will find that you’re not as hungry as you thought you were. In fact, you’re downright nauseated. Weight loss achieved! But the vinegar rotted your teeth away, so there’s that.

The Texas Firefighter Diet

Texas currently has the twelfth-highest obesity rate in the country, so the author of this book will pardon us if mentioning Texas firefighters doesn’t instantly conjure up images of svelte, manly fitness. The secret to this diet, created to curb obesity among firefighters, is eating fewer barbecued ribs and more vegetables. Shocking.

The Sleep Diet

Sleep – your doing it wrong. Lucky for you, author Michael Breus has the answer. If you sleep better, you’ll lose weight. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Sleep more.
Step 2: ??
Step 3: Your metabolism is raised, burning fat and decreasing cravings. Congrats! You’re skinny!

The Hot Diet

After carefully studying 104,000 people, the author of this book noticed that fat people tended to drink beverages with ice while they ate. Thus, ice is the enemy. Science has spoken – only consume warm things.

The Jesus Diet

What Would Jesus Eat? Well, He would probably have eaten a lot of fish, whole grains, fruit, vegetables, red wine, and olive oil. Nothing processed and not too much red meat (saved for special occasions) or pork (unkosher). Actually, this one makes a lot of sense, so go for it. Just remember that once you reach your goal weight, you’ll have to cover up at the beach, because He demands modesty.

Image: isox4, edkohler, uberculture, deansouglass, Kyle May , Rich 701, mccun934

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ColumnWhat exactly is the French Paradox? Turns out it’s just a different attitude towards food.

Mes amis, let us take a moment and go francophile. But first let me preface this by acknowledging that there was in fact a time when my love affair with France hit a dark spot.

A longtime francophile – “Anna, do you really have to always pronounce croissant with a French accent?” – I did what any person in love would do: I moved. But somewhere along the line, France stopped being the romantic place it once had been. My newfound relationship with the place, once seductive and alluring, turned commonplace, and in the midst of dealing with French bureaucracy, I was no longer intrigued by the je ne sais quoi.

But like any good relationship, distance did it some good, and now France and I are back to where we once were, with me constantly craving a taste of French culture. Which brings me back to food.

As a culture, we have long been intrigued by the idea that French women don’t get fat. But that concept stretches across an entire nation, giving us the French paradox. How does one consume cream, butter and ample amounts of cheese and still manage to be perfectly in shape? Our Anglo minds have a hard time grappling with this question, but really it all comes down to how we think about food, and in France it’s all about having a respect for what’s on the plate in front of you. A way of life instead of a lifestyle choice.

Ultimately the French Paradox isn’t a paradox at all, it’s just about a few simple values that we could easily start incorporating into our own lives, no matter where we live.

Food Is Culture

Although local love for the national cuisine may be failing, an appreciation for good food in France has never diminished, and the commitment to keeping the tie between eating and feeling good is alive and strong. Take Le Fooding for example. Deemed “A taste of the times,” it’s a restaurant guide/food festival/food news site, and one that’s committed more to putting the “feeling” back into food.

“We are about having food with fun, and with a smile,” Le Fooding’s founder Alexandre Cammas told the Los Angeles Times. And herein lies the French paradox: food is directly tied to emotional well being. French people don’t eat because they have to, they eat because it’s a valued part of their day and their culture.

Food Is Food

As Maurice Edmond Sailland (pen-name Curnonsky) once said, “Fine cooking is when the things you have cooked taste as they are.” A roasted chicken with a rich sauce may sound decadent to our American-trained stomachs, but as it turns out, real food is not only healthier, it’s also cheaper than the fast food, high caloric alternatives.

Real food isn’t processed, and it certainly doesn’t come vacuum packed and wrapped in styrofoam, and hitting up the market every day for a basket of vegetables instead of potato chips quickly leads to a healthier society.

Food Is Quality

When kids aren’t allowed to eat ketchup in the cafeteria anymore – unless it’s for the once a week burger – you know a country is doing something right. Meanwhile we’re sitting back and only barely touching the surface of the issue, with all kinds of ridiculous backlash, including the likes of Sarah Palin touting the benefits of sweets.

But the French know that when it comes to children, they have to set an example. “France must be an example to the world in the quality of its food, starting with its children,” said Bruno Le Maire, French Minister for Agriculture and Food.

Food is Tradition

Although you’ll certainly find a few cupcakes in France, food fads don’t hit like they do on our side of the Atlantic. Deep down, the French know what they are supposed to eat: whole grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy and protein. Sure, the supermarket has over 100 kinds of yogurt, but 100 kinds of yogurt is much better than 100 kinds of sugary breakfast cereal.

Because food is tradition, there are certain classic staples that remain part of the culture. You’d be hard pressed to find a French person who doesn’t know a thing or two about cheese, and wherever you are in the country, if you just take time to ask, it won’t take long to learn what the regional specialty is and who in town makes it.

Food Isn’t Treated as Unlimited

Most of us, even broke 20-somethings, have the ability to buy way more food than we need. Compare this to places where almost entire household incomes go to sustaining a family, and you begin to see the disparity. Unfortunately because it’s hard to resist a good thing, even though we don’t need everything that we’re able to purchase, we still have a tendency to consume it and that means larger portions and more of them. French people eat until they are full, and then stop. Those French women consuming all that heavy cream and butter? They do it in moderation, knowing their personal limits.

Food is Joie de Vivre

Everyone has to eat, so why not enjoy the moment, preferably with friends? Eating with others has not only emotional benefits but also means you’re not sitting in front of the television alone, mindlessly moving your hand from chip bag to mouth. Food is meant to be enjoyed; given the time it took to get from the earth to your plate, it deserves to be enjoyed.

Want to be more French? Don’t just whip up a coq au vin or grab a croissant with your coffee for breakfast tomorrow. Eating French isn’t about the specific dishes, it’s about the entire process. Think about what you eat, where it comes from and enjoy the process of consuming it and who you’re eating it with. In fact, c’est simple.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: carolus124, pdbreen, Mike Towber

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ColumnTaking a Swedish approach to appreciating our everyday food routines.

I’ve been traveling for a few weeks, and in doing so have failed to keep up with the latest and greatest in food news that seems to inundate the blogosphere on a daily basis. But a girl needs a break every now and then, and so the computer has been off, and the brain partially so as well. Fortunately, we all need sustenance, and although I haven’t been keeping up to date on what’s new in food, I have been eating a lot of it.

This is relaxing eating. Summer enjoyment. Sitting down with friends and family and enjoying everything from basic open faced sandwiches to fancier fried chantrelles. Not fretting over what to throw in the stir fry for dinner because I’m exhausted after work. No, this is food for the sake of food.

Sometimes I will ask for a recipe and jot it down in my red Moleskine, sometimes I just sit and enjoy, not thinking about what went into making what I am eating, and sometimes I get riled up and launch into a diatribe on the failings of the American and global food system – trust me, it’s part of the dinner table charm.

I’ve also been scouring every daily newspaper that sits next to my cup of tea and skim through the food section where there’s always a new recipe. Really they just make me want to throw dinner parties. And then in the evening I feel a pang of jealousy as I watch trailers for the new television series by one of my favorite Swedish food personalities, Tina, thinking to myself, “I want a cooking show too.”

What I’ve come to realize is that even taking a break, I still can’t get away from food. None of us can. No matter where we are or who we’re with, we have to eat. You may be a freak about it as I am – every meal I eat I make a mental list of how easy it would be to make at home and how I could even tweak it – but when it comes down to it, food culture permeates all of our everyday lives.

Unfortunately, we often don’t take the time to enjoy it.

I read an article during one of my famed tea and morning newspaper sessions about the author of the new cookbook Mat Under Bar Himel (Food Under an Open Sky). Beyond the poetic name that seems to sing summer and vacation ( it’s on the shopping list for before I head home), the author Michael Krantz points out that eating outside is a way to better appreciate our food and our friends. “When you eat outside you’re forced to talk to each other in a different way. When you’re inside, there are a lot of other distractions,” he said to Dagens Nyheter.

Combine that idea with the fact that we know that eating is better for us when we’re in positive social settings, and it’s no wonder that summer fare tastes and feels so wonderful.

I won’t even attempt to make any arguments about how Swedes are more conscious about what they eat than Americans – they are also facing a staggering obesity epidemic, fast food burger chains are on the rise, and a trip to the grocery store tells you there are plenty of refrigerators stocked with prepared foods ready to be thrown into the microwave.

And yet, there’s a consciousness about food that hangs in the air, not what it is or where it comes from, but that it’s important to eat, three times a day, every day, and that sometimes, it’s worth investing a little time in making something good. Even those who don’t like to cook peruse cookbooks to put together respectable dinner parties. Food has a certain level of importance and deserves our attention. Which is why the Swedish refrigerator and pantry tends to be stocked with the essentials: hardtack, dense bread, yogurt, meat, cheese, butter, vegetables and most likely a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter or table. Basic but essential.

And when it comes to eating that essential food, time is valued. Breakfast, even as small as coffee and a macka (open faced sandwich), is a must, lunch breaks are lunch breaks, to be had in the break room instead of in front of the computer, and on weekends, dinners often get a little glorified, if nothing else, to celebrate the days off.

There is nothing extraordinary or trendy about this approach to food, on the contrary, it’s very simple. This is what makes it so that food and the enjoyment of food plays an integral role in everyday life, instead of being a mere after thought. Which means there’s thought put into which sandwiches you make to take on your afternoon outing, and an insistence on finding a good spot to sit down with your coffee thermos and enjoy the sun. The time to eat, even when you’re not eating anything fancy, is not to be taken lightly.

So forget complex recipes, forget the latest gluten-free baked goods, just take some time to eat good, simple food with friends, maybe even throw in a bottle of wine for good measure, and give honor to the sustenance that your body needs.

Because if we all have to eat, every single day, why not make it an enjoyable routine?

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: Appreciating Simple Food appeared first on EcoSalon.

When it comes to cuisines, a city’s status isn’t just about collecting restaurants with 3 Michelin stars. These days it’s all about a holistic approach: numerous hole-in-the-walls serving up hard-to-find goods, ample access to fresh and local (preferably organic) produce, a local wine culture. Just as the underground food movement has taken hold, making it cool to make your own food, harvest your own vegetables and buy a share in a community-run vineyard, so has the definition of food culture.

You think food-centric cities and the usual suspects pop up: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Paris. But according to a recent study by CNBC, the foodie cities of the country aren’t just the standard handful. According to the study, the top 10 places for excellent food and excellent food culture are:

• Santa Rosa, California
• Portland, Oregon
• Burlington, Vermont
• Portland, Maine
• San Francisco, California
• Providence, Rhode Island
• Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Seattle, Washington
• Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Santa Barbara, California

But how was the list determined? Calculating data on the ratio of local restaurants to chain restaurants, number of Whole Foods and cooking stores, number of wine shops, wine bars, craft breweries, and brew pubs; and the number of CSA (community supported agriculture) farms and local farmers markets.

Which brings me to a minor frustration: Whole Foods is an indicator of a foodie city? With the influx of underground farmers markets, supper clubs, and soup swaps it’s certainly clear that our food trends are not being dictated by larger chains, no matter how many local, unpasteurized, artisan varieties of chevre they sell.

Take Whole Foods out of the picture and it’s easy to posit that these cities are deemed foodie hotspots because their inhabitants care about an important combination of things: personal and environmental health. They have a relationship to where their food comes from, they know the value of eating well and, above all, their cities provide an infrastructure for doing so.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: mastermac

The post Foodie Underground: What Does It Take to Be a Foodie City? appeared first on EcoSalon.

For foodies, the last year has seen an enormous rise in the street food trend, bringing quick, authentic and diverse food to the masses. For fashionistas, it’s been pop-up shops, taking advantage of unused retail space and allowing for unique shopping experiences that can focus on more local and sustainable themes. Now combine the two. What do you get? Pop-up restaurants.

A pop up restaurant makes sense in the day and age where economic stability isn’t always a given. And it has the allure of not being an established locale, something that suits cutting-edge urban foodies just fine. Think I’m kidding? There’s a whole blog devoted to documenting the effort of opening up a restaurant for limited cash and keeping it mobile. And with helpful guerrilla tools like Twitter and food blogs, getting the word out about mobile culinary experiences isn’t all too difficult.

Cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and London – with their food crazed populations that are always up for something new – are quick to embrace the trend. In San Francisco, it’s being taking even further, with the upcoming Street Fixe, a sit-down street-food prix fixe with table service. Part of the beauty of street food is that it’s not served in traditional dining environment, but every once in awhile don’t you just wish you could enjoy your tacos in a little more peace and quiet? Street Fixe will provide for just that, and by putting several vendors in one space, eliminate the need for underground research on where the latest and greatest food cart of the week is.

Earlier this year, New York tried a similar thing, hosting The Hunger, which focused on their deemed theme of “Urban Cuisine Burgeois.” Or there’s the Ghetto Gourmet, a wandering supper club of sorts which provides a whole community of people looking to host and attend pop up type eating events. Dining out-of-the-box so to say.

Mobile and able to transition quickly, the idea of pop up restaurants might conjure up images of poorly cooked meals that lack creativity. On the contrary, part of the allure of these places is their gastronomic ingenuity. Street Fixe has a five course menu that includes Sabudana Vada Tapioca Fritter, complete with hot and sweet apricot sauce. Mission Street Food makes diversity a central part of its menu, bringing in a new guest chef every week, giving up and coming chefs the chance to make a name for themselves with the cool crowd.

Pop up restaurants aren’t just hitting the urban, out-and-about scene, in a down economy they’re also becoming a trend for eating at home, allowing amateur chefs try their hand at whipping together a meal and bringing together a small crowd. There are even How to guides out there for those that are willing to take on the endeavor, meaning that your pop up dining experience could be just around the corner.

Do you have a favorite pop up restaurant in your town? Tell us about it! Either in the comments below, or by using #FoodieUnderground on Twitter.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: Mark & Andrea Busse

The post Foodie Underground: Pop Up Cuisine appeared first on EcoSalon.

Maybe it’s the result of an economy that requires a skill for penny pinching or maybe it’s just a renewed love of food, but whatever the reasons behind it, amateur involvement in culinary culture is happening big time, bringing the power of being a foodie into the hands of everyone who wants a taste. Call it indie, call it DIY, but this trend is simply expanding on something we’ve done for centuries: create sustenance.

Independent food markets are taking place more frequently in underground economies, providing an outlet for small-time food vendors to take a stab at doing what they’re best at and at the same time turn a profit. In places like these, a friend’s, “Mmm… that’s delicious, you should sell it!” is no longer just a compliment, it’s motivation for business.

In Brooklyn, $20 gets you a six-foot folding table at the Greenpoint Food Market, where you’re welcome to sell whatever concoctions you wish. “Some of my vendors just sell granola bars wrapped in saran wrap or foil and that’s about as far as they want to go,” market founder Joan Kim told Chow.

In San Francisco, kombucha is pitted against jam in a competitive audition to get into the Underground Farmers Market. So far, there have only been a handful of the markets hosted, but interest is at a high, feeding both people’s desire to sell something they’ve made themselves, and also, to buy homemade goods that don’t have a commercial flair.

Independent markets like these give people with a penchant for crafting creative edibles the opportunity to try their hand at the food industry, but with very low barriers to entry. The result is a diverse array of foods, with something to please every taste, that is as empowering as it is cutting-edge.

But even those not willing to devote late nights to baking up a storm and hauling the goods to the local market early on a Saturday morning are still taking part in the changing food movement.

At Forage in Los Angeles, the restaurant depends on connecting with its customers to provide seasonal fare at a reasonable prices. When a chef is on the lookout for a special ingredient, they don’t turn to a distributor, they turn to urban foragers, depending on the restaurants clientele to bring them the taste of the day – be it lavender or bundles of citrus fruit. Chefs sample and select which produce will make it to the restaurant’s palate. The concept is aptly named Harvest Call.

The result is a menu that is inherently more local, but also more communal with various clientele getting to take part in deciding what they eat. Taking the idea of urban foraging to a new level, restaurants like Forage encourage interaction with food, not just a passive experience of it.

This idea of gastronomic equality, making everyone an equal part in the food process, may just be an edgy passing fad – people do in fact still love the occasional 5 star experience – but in the meantime, it’s truly changing how we think about food and our relationship to it. And encouraging all of us, no matter what our foodie level, to get more involved with what we eat.

Editor’s note: This is the debut of Anna Brones’s new column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Images: ginnerobot, Greenpoint Food Market, R Stanek

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You may have noticed some of the interesting new foodish ventures happening in various parts of the country. L.A., Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area all have thriving street food cultures.

New York always has – especially in Queens where informal vendors gather under the overpasses at odd times of day and night.

There’s a cool factor in this (anything underground is automatically cool), but the compelling thing is how the economy is driving interesting new models and innovations. People are attempting to color outside the lines. New ideas are flourishing and they don’t always match up with the regulations meant to keep everything tidy, legal and predictable.

Why Food Crazes Are Taking Off

On the consumer side, people are searching for authenticity and connection, and they want to meet face-to-face with the people who make their food. My theory is that the economic collapse has shaken our trust in “the system” (food safety scares haven’t helped either), and as evidenced in Katherine Butler’s piece on guerilla gardening, people have become so passionate about “going green” they are willing to break the law by planting their own produce.

Producers, who want to meet this need, and perhaps monetize a passion for artisan food production, are finding that the barriers to starting a new food business – whether leasing a building, licensing a cart or setting up a table at a farmers’ market – are sky high. From permitting to health department inspections, there are many hoops to jump through and daunting up-front expenses.

Many chefs who lost their jobs when their restaurants closed (not to mention great cooks from other employment sectors) would like to start their own food businesses. Whether that’s a salami and sausage business, a hot soup delivery service or a cart selling prepared foods, such start-ups are challenged in trying to get their wares to potential customers. Confusing regulations and conflicting rules between cities in the same metropolitan areas are just a few of the issues. There’s also the high start up costs due to the requirements that all such foods be produced in commercial kitchens.

But the customers want it, as evidenced by the lines around the block at the “underground farmers’ market” or the hours-long waits at the San Francisco Street Food Festival last August.

Here’s a rundown of just a few of the creative (and barely legal) ventures enabling would-be food sellers to creatively work with existing regulations until they can be rewritten.

Pop up General Store:

This venture is in Oakland (mere steps from my home, I’m happy to say). It’s a collection of local chefs and legit food producers who use commercial kitchens but don’t have brick and mortar stores.

Samin Nosrat and Chris Lee, two chefs who were thrown out of work when their restaurant closed, founded the Pop Up General Store. The store “pops up” every two weeks in the large, open lobby of a historic streetcar station turned catering kitchen. Customers can order ahead using a digital form, or pop in and buy what’s available. Until the website is built, organizers communicate with their customers through Facebook and an email newsletter. The foods are fantastic, and seasonal. Recent offerings included Posole Verde, Fresh Rigatoni, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Spring Lamb Roasts and for Passover, Matzoh Ball Soup.

I caught up with Nosrat and asked her where the idea for the general store originated. She told me she and Chris would often run into former regular customers of Eccolo, the Berkeley restaurant where the two chefs worked, and customers would tell them how much they missed certain foods.

“Why can’t we make it and sell it?” says Nosrat, explaining the thought process. “We wanted to find a way to keep making the foods we loved and share them with the people who want to eat them, while making a name for ourselves for the future,” she added.

Starting with the restaurant’s email list, the two got a much larger response than they expected. Soon, other chef friends and food artisans joined in. Many were chefs having a hard time economically due to layoffs or reduced hours. Others simply wanted to start their own food businesses, but not before testing the waters. Many, like Lee and Nosrat, are alumni of the illustrious Chez Panisse in Berkeley, so we’re talking about some stellar vittles. If you visit the Pop Up General Store, more likely than not, the very people who produced the food items you see there will be proudly hand-selling them too.

Just a few weeks in, the popularity of the Pop Up General Store is growing fast. Nosrat ventured a guess as to why customers so immediately latch on. “People like seeing the cooks who make their food,” says Nosrat. “In restaurants, cooks are never the ones sharing the food with the customers. They are always in the kitchen.”

331 Cortland:

This San Francisco start-up is an incubator. Somewhere between an indoor collection of food carts and a store, it’s a cooperative retail space that, once open, will house six vendors selling delectables like Japanese deli foods, vegan baked goods, fresh produce, pickles, sandwiches and more. There’s also a knife sharpening business that for years has been housed in the operator’s nearby home.

The original intent of the space was to be a flexible, indoor food market. The spaces were to be customized to the tenants so vendors could cycle in and out as they find success, gain clientele and move onto their own retail spaces.

The building’s owner, Debra Resnik, wanted to provide a place for vendors who were producing their foods in commercial kitchens and had begun to make a name for themselves through personal deliveries, catering or other avenues, but who weren’t ready to take the leap into a retail space all their own.

I spoke with Resnik on the phone, where she outlined her mixed success with the planning/permitting functionaries in the city of San Francisco. I knew the opening of the space had been much delayed due to permitting issues, mostly because the space doesn’t fit into any well-defined category.

She explains, they were cleared to open and the vendors had started their build-outs, but her original idea for the space had to be adjusted to make it happen. “Because of the regulations,” said Resnik, “Some of the aspects of the flexible floor plan are impossible. We basically won half of what we wanted.”

In this case, the neighborhood and city wanted 331 Cortland to open, but it was difficult to get off the ground due to regulations. The various agencies haven’t been able to figure out where 331 Cortland belongs.

Resnik added that because they “went out there and tried this new concept, maybe other people will have an easier time. Hopefully their experiences will be streamlined.”

Though the process has taken much patience and work, Resnik remains excited. “Working with all of these creative food people has been incredibly rewarding,” she says.

331 Cortland is planning a mid-April 2010 opening.

Vendors are Della Terra Organic Produce, Bernal Cutlery, Paulie’s Pickling, El Porteño Empanadas, Wholesome Bakery, and Ichi Lucky Cat Deli.

Community Commercial Kitchens:

For farmers, being able to sell value-added products like jams, preserves, canned vegetables and pickles can mean the difference between survival and getting an office job. Legal food production, however, has to be done in a licensed, inspected commercial kitchen. Most farmers don’t have the resources to build one from scratch.

All over the country community kitchens are popping up. Many are in rural areas near farms. This is very exciting because, with all the talk of local food, it’s still a minuscule percentage of total food dollars spent. The distribution and transportation issues are just too great with perishables. But once a food is shelf stable, this becomes much easier. A quick Google search turns up dozens of these ventures across the country, in areas as diverse as New Mexico, Florida and North Carolina. (Some of the funding for these operations is coming from the USDA’s new Know your Farmer know your Food program.)

SF Underground Farmers Market:

The SF Underground Farmers Market is a project of Forage SF, a business that offers a CSA box and dinners to help diners become acquainted with the wild foods that exist all around.

Attending The SF Underground Farmers Market is a way to taste and purchase the food that is being produced in backyards and home kitchens in the Bay Area by artisans who lack the resources to “go legit”. The SF Underground Market is a place where budding businesses can get a leg up on their road to legitimacy.

According to the website, the first market was held in a private home in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, with eight vendors and about 200 attendees. By the time the third market was held, there were 47 vendors and over 1,200 people attending. How does The Underground Farmers’ Market stay on the right side of the law? To get notification for the events attendees must sign up for a free membership.

All these businesses have two things in common: Creativity and cooperation. Our society could use a little more of both.

Leave a comment and tell us about any favorite innovative new food businesses in your neck of the woods.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

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